Episode 17: Drake Hunters (10)

The first to move was the Horn Drake. From a place where trees and grass burned and black smoke rose, it attacked indiscriminately, targeting everything around it.

With a swipe of its clawed foreleg, it sent Turock skidding back with his shield. Then, with a swing of its tail, it knocked Eto, who had leaped from behind, swinging a two-handed sword, flying through the air. The Drake continued by spinning its entire body, whipping its tail to strike the remaining hunters and adventurers nearby.

Reinhold, Lat, and Uuk were struck by the Drake's heavy tail, thrown back, and collapsed onto the ground.

"Wellen! It's coming your way!"

Spotting another small group of hunters approaching, the Horn Drake swiftly charged toward the direction Wellen was coming from.

"Raise the blast lance! Drive it in firmly and activate the mechanism!"

Wellen gripped his blast lance tightly with both hands, aiming its tip at the charging Drake.

"Smir! Baum! Forward! Lesa and Clau, flank it!"

At Wellen's command, the harpoon team began to move. Just as the group started to scatter and Gravel prepared to cast a strengthening spell by unfolding a magic circle, Iris, who had been standing silently by Gravel's side, stepped in front of him.

"I'll handle it, Lord Gravel."

Iris judged the charging Horn Drake to be a threat. Gravel's earlier warning not to reveal her power only applied when there was no threat to him. Unlike Gravel, Iris wasn't cautious by nature. She didn't weigh the difference in strength between herself and her opponent, analyze their behavior calmly, predict their actions, or consider the consequences of her own. That was Gravel's way, not hers.

If she deemed something a threat to her lord, Gravel, she would strike first. There was no need to measure the enemy's strength. If the opponent was stronger, she would die. If she died protecting Gravel, that was enough. Thus, she believed her purpose was to eliminate all threats without overthinking.

An explosive surge of mana began to gather toward Iris. It swirled in a small vortex, drawing in the surrounding air. The flow of mana was so intense that nearby grass and stones were pulled toward her.

The momentum was as if she could cleave the approaching Horn Drake in half. Countless tasks to handle flooded Gravel's mind—explanations to make, unwanted entanglements to avoid. Dozens of thoughts swirled in his head, but he cut through them, and his decision translated into action.

"(Sorry, Iris! I'll explain later!) Locas! Iterum!"

A blue magic circle briefly glowed beneath Iris's feet as Gravel pointed at her. With a flash, Iris vanished from his side.

Boom!

A distant explosion and the sound of collapsing rocks echoed. Gravel figured it was the sound of Iris, unaware she had been forcibly teleported by his relocation spell to the canyon's entrance, striking the canyon wall instead of the Drake.

'Phew… That was an immense amount of mana… Iris, I told you not to show your power…'

Having averted the worst-case scenario, Gravel let out a long sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, Wellen's harpoon team spread out, encircling the Drake.

"Lesa! Clau! We'll go first from this side! Strike when you see an opening, even without my signal!"

Following Wellen's orders, Baum and Smir lowered their stances, extending their beast lances and inching toward the Horn Drake.

"Alright. The moment this thing attacks us is our chance. Front claws, tail, bite—whatever it does, we strike the instant it moves! Got it?"

"Yes."

"Yes, Wellen!"

As Lesa and Clau responded, Wellen stepped closer to provoke the Drake's attack. Reacting to his movement, the Drake lifted its foreleg off the ground, aiming for Wellen.

"Now!"

Wellen threw his blast lance and charged forward. Thanks to the lingering effects of Gravel's speed enhancement spell, he closed in on the Drake before the thrown lance even reached it.

Smir and Baum followed, advancing with their lances. The harpoon team's movements were so swift, it was as if time itself was being wound forward.

As planned, Clau and Lesa rushed in from the Drake's blind spots, driving their lances into its body. Five lances pierced the Drake's flesh. The beast's pained roar drowned out Wellen's shouts to the others. Realizing his voice wasn't carrying, Wellen gripped the handle of the blast lance embedded in the Drake's body with both hands, looked up, and bellowed.

"The blast device! Activate the blast devices!"

Boom!

With an explosion, the blast lance's mechanism drove the spearhead deeper into the Drake's body. Wellen, enduring the recoil, was splattered with the Drake's blood, staining his face and armor.

Baum, Smir, and Lesa's blast lances followed, each exploding and burrowing deeper into the Drake's wounds. Then, as Clau tightly gripped his blast lance and activated its device…

"Argh!"

Unlike the previous four explosions, a massive blast—far louder than expected—rang out, accompanied by Clau's scream as he was flung back as if repelled by the Drake.

"Clau?"

"What happened?"

Assuming the blast lance had malfunctioned due to the unprecedented explosion and recoil, the harpoon team turned toward Clau, who was rolling across the ground.

"Ugh… What kind of blast lance makes an explosion that big? It wasn't like this last time…"

Clau staggered to his feet. Gravel quickly approached him.

"Are you alright?"

Gravel's hand, placed on Clau's shoulder, glowed with a faint green light.

The massive explosion from Clau's blast lance left a gaping wound in the Horn Drake's side. The beast let out a pained cry, raising its head high.

VIS. RAS. TOL. FLAAAA!!

A grotesque mix of incomprehensible words and pained roars echoed like a reverberation from the Horn Drake. From the tip of its broken horn, a small flame grew, fueled by the beast's breaths, expanding into a massive orb of intertwining red and orange flames.

"This… It's getting bigger!"

"Everyone, get back!"

"It's too big to dodge…!"

Staring at the sun-like fireball forming at the Drake's horn, Gravel realized he had no choice but to cast a high-level spell to save everyone—something stronger than the magic arrow he'd used earlier. He extended his palm toward the Drake, preparing to cast a spell.

Thwoooom!

The sound of twisting, snapping wood rang out, followed by the firing sound of the Palintonon. With the sound of flesh being pierced, three massive anti-beast bolts lodged into the Horn Drake's neck.

"Huff… Haha… Damn Drake, how about you fall already?"

Drenched in sweat, Gromeyer panted, sitting atop the Palintonon, which bore scorch marks from the Drake's earlier magical attack.

Blood poured from the Horn Drake's mouth. The massive fireball above its head scattered into tiny sparks, fading away. The beast's head, still bleeding profusely, fell powerlessly to the ground. The wounds and embedded harpoons across its body testified to the grueling battle. Hunters and adventurers, some barely standing, gathered around the fallen Drake.

"Woooaah!"

"Hahaha!"

"Finally! It's down!"

The cheers and triumphant cries of the hunters and adventurers filled the air. Gathering around the Drake, they exchanged smiles, patting each other's shoulders as the reality of their successful hunt sank in, sharing the surging joy of victory.

*****

After the Horn Drake fell, the original campsite was relocated to the area around the beast's body. Typically, horses and manpower would drag the carcass to the camp for dismantling, but the Horn Drake's size and weight made that impractical. Following Gromeyer's orders, tent stakes were pulled up, stacks of firewood and crates were loaded onto wagons, and everything was moved to the Drake's side.

The horses, startled by the sight of the Drake's corpse, whinnied and tried to flee, but were calmed with corn and carrots and tied to sturdy wooden stakes. Only then could everyone finally rest, if only briefly.

A massive bonfire was lit at the center of the new campsite. The sound of grilling meat, clinking wooden mugs, and the laughter of hunters and adventurers filled the air. Holding a plate of hefty meat in one hand and a sloshing mug of ale in the other, Gromeyer stood at the center of attention, regaling the group with his tale.

"Hahaha! So, you see, that fireball went boom! It completely blew off the Palintonon's support beam! We grabbed buckets to put out the fire, and Leutang was running around looking for the anti-beast bolts that got blasted away. It was chaos, I tell you!"

"And we worked our butts off to find the ones that weren't broken!"

Gromeyer and Leutang clinked their mugs and downed their drinks.

"Gah! So, we shoved the bolts Leutang found into the tilted Palintonon. But then that damn Drake went zoooom—charging right toward Wellen! Our Palintonon, though, got knocked sideways by that fireball earlier, so it couldn't turn left or right. So, I yelled at the boys, 'Push this thing!' We barely managed to turn it toward the Drake and… Fire!"

"And that's when you landed the final blow, right?"

"My arms and legs are still wrecked from pushing that thing!"

The crew, listening to Gromeyer's story, raised their mugs overhead, reveling once more in the thrill of victory.

"Alright! Bellies full, a bit of rest—now let's get to work! The sooner we start, the sooner we sleep!"

Gromeyer set his mug on a round wooden barrel and strode toward the Horn Drake's corpse.

"Break's over! Move it, you lot!"

The sound of mugs being set down on crates and tables echoed as the hunters trudged wearily after Gromeyer.